By Byron Mutingwende The Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework (ZUNDAF) has recorded significant progress regardless of the current economic challenges, which have been exacerbated by climate change effects, Dr. Misheck Sibanda, the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet has said. In a speech read on his behalf at the High Level…
By Tatenda Mujeyi The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) country representatives are converged for a training workshop on country tracking compliance on the Paris Agreement by 2020. The workshop is aimed at creating locally designed solutions to the climate change issues as called for by the Paris agreement of 2015. “The Nationally…
By Nevson Mpofu Retailing giant OK Zimbabwe says it is feeling the heat of business difficulties the country is facing, Chief Executive Officer Mr Alex Siyavora said at the OK Annual General Meeting held in Harare. Economic challenges, among them inflation characterised by deterioration in exchange rate, were some of the reasons causing the difficulties….
By Jeff Gelski WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S. — The global food system needs to change to make sure people have enough food to eat in 2050 without destroying the planet, according to “Creating a Sustainable Food Future,” a World Resources Report released July 17. Reducing food waste, eating more plant-based food instead of animal-based food, and…
By Byron Mutingwende The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) Chief Executive Officer Dr Andrew Matibiri has provided statistics that paint a gloomy future for the crop that has sustained most farmers in the past. Dr Matibiri revealed the information while giving oral evidence to the Parliamentary Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Climate, Water…
By Anna Wiber To increase the quality of corn used in foods such as tortillas and chips, scientists from University of Minnesota, PepsiCo and Corteva Agriscience are calling for more research on the ingredient’s production. In the Crop Science journal article “Food-Grade Maize Composition, Evaluation, and Genetics for Masa-Based Products,” authors state that an insufficient understanding of…
United Nations Environment Programme Half of the world’s population is directly engaged in agriculture and nearly 40 per cent of land is devoted to agriculture and livestock. Food production sustains us all, but it also comes at a cost: water sources are being depleted and contaminated by food production, and unhealthy diets are burdening our…
By Jonny Bairstow Researchers predict hotter temperatures and the presence of more greenhouse gases in the air will diminish agricultural productivity Over the next three decades, climate change and increasing carbon dioxide concentrations could significantly reduce the availability of vital nutrients in food crops. That’s the forecast made in new research published by the Lancet Planetary Health…
By Tatenda Mujeyi The Ministry of Lands has hosted a deforestation and land degradation workshop to curb the effects of degradation and deforestation in line with the Paris Agreement in Harare this week. The workshop was aimed at understanding the drivers of deforestation as well as proffers the correct definition of forestry in the…
The European Union has launched three projects under the EU 11th EDF Cross-Regional Wildlife Conservation programme in Eastern and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean to protect and promote the country’s marvellous biodiversity endowment. Speaking at the launch, Ambassador Timo Olkkonen, the Head of EU Delegation to Zimbabwe said this country’s natural riches are not…
By Charles Dhewa Besides focusing on pleasing foreign investors, the easy of doing business hype https://tradingeconomics.com/zimbabwe/ease-of-doing-business gives an impression that business is easy. If doing business was easy everybody would be a business person. Farmers and entrepreneurs who wait for conditions to become favourable in order to get into business will stop forever. Most organisations…
According to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) 2019 Synthesis Report on the State of Food and Nutrition Security and Vulnerability in Southern Africa, 41.2 million people in 13 countries are estimated to be food insecure in the 2019/20 year. Comparing the 11 Member States that provided data last year, food insecurity has increased by 28 percent and…
By Byron Mutingwende United Nations agencies of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme are implementing projects to ensure food security in communities in the drought-prone Masvingo Province. WFP Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) Project Courtesy of a United Nations in Zimbabwe organised media tour, this publication visited the Chebvute…
By Byron Mutingwende The media plays an important role in defining common denominator in promoting national interest and setting progressive socio-economic and democratic agenda in the country, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe has said. “The role of media, including the newsprint, electronic and online/digital entities, cannot be over-emphasised in national development, which involves advancement…
By Byron Mutingwende The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) under the auspices of the SADC Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate has said the 2018-19 Summer Agricultural season was one of the driest since 1981. This was revealed by Dr. Tamuka Magadzire, the FEWS NET Regional Scientist for Southern Africa during…
As natural disasters threaten the most vulnerable people in the Southern Africa and Indian Ocean region, the EU is providing €7 million in humanitarian aid to increase the capacity of communities and authorities to prepare for and respond to disasters. This aid is in addition to the approximately €17 million in EU humanitarian assistance given…
Mauritius is one of the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS), that is highly vulnerable to climate change due to its smallness, remoteness and exposure to natural hazards. This was revealed by Dharamraj Deenoo, the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Security, Environment and Sustainable Development in his presentation at the Vulnerability Assessment…
By Byron Mutingwende Across a number of counties in Southern Africa, vulnerability assessment and analysis results for the 2018/19 agricultural season paint a gloomy picture but with relevant interventions there is light at the end of the tunnel. This write-up will focus on Zimbabwe. Addressing stakeholders during the Windhoek Regional Vulnerability Assessment and…
ActionAid Zimbabwe (AAZ) in partnership with Zimbabwe Environment Lawyers Association (ZELA), AfroSoft Private Limited and Africa Breeders Services Total Cattle Management (ABS TCM) has launched the Second Phase of the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) Programme in the Zambezi Valley reaching 45 105 households. Phase 1 of the ZRBF Programme ran from July 2016 to May…
Meeting to consolidate the regional food and nutrition security outlook for 2019 The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis (RVAA) programme’s annual dissemination meeting has opened in Windhoek, Namibia with a call to strengthen and prioritise the mainstreaming of climate change into vulnerability assessments and analysis. The meeting that took…
Tanzania, which will export maize to some countries plagued by inclement weather and droughts, has emerged the sole shining light in the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) corn crisis. The country is set to sell 700 000 tonnes of the staple maize food to Zimbabwe, which is enduring reduced yields after the Cyclone Idai ravaged…
Zimnat has provided roofing materials for yet another school hit by Cyclone Idai, which lifted and blew away the roof of two classroom blocks at Buwu Primary School, leaving pupils having to share classrooms that still have their roofs intact. The hot seating arrangement to accommodate the pupils whose classrooms were no longer safe has…
By Esther Ngumbi The latest UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s annual Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition Report highlighted drought as one of the key factors contributing to the continuing rise in the number of hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa. And in South Africa, the Government’s Crop Estimates Committee announced that the country would harvest 20…
Econet’s innovation, Ecofarmer, a mobile-based insurance services programme epitomises the important role that technology can play in achieving gender equality. Ecofarmer is a mobile technology solution, which delivers weather-based insurance, real-time, location-based weather information and farming tips via cellphone, that is helping producers to combat the effects of climate change. Statistics show that Zimbabwe is…
Zimnat, together with Sanlam, with which Zimnat is associated, last week donated roofing materials to yet another Chimanimani school affected by Cyclone Idai, Muchadziya Primary School in Ngorima. This follows a similar donation to Gatsi Primary School in Tamba village in Mutasa District barely a week earlier. The cyclone lifted the roof off a classroom…
Zimnat, in association with Sanlam, has donated roofing materials worth more than RTGS $60 000 to Gatsi Primary School in Chimanimani, which was left reeling with an accommodation crisis after Cyclone Idai swept through the area. Zimnat donated 60 roofing sheets, 320 units of roofing timber and 30kg of roofing nails to repair the roof of teaching…
Staff Writer Cabinet is intensifying efforts to rehabilitate Cyclone Idai affected areas, the Minister of Media Information and Broadcasting services Monica Mutsvangwa said at a post cabinet briefing held at Munhumutapa Building in Harare yesterday. Government has been given the go ahead by the traditional leaders to undertake the relocation exercise and has begun intensifying…
By Tatenda Mujeyi and Byron Mutingwende The decline in biodiversity initiated by malpractices in administering natural resources and ecosystem management is hampering the realisation of maximum potential tourism returns. The remarks were echoed by most speakers at the belated World Biodiversity Day commemorations hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Harare last Thursday….
By Byron Mutingwende The Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) in partnership with Oxfam Zimbabwe have provided a preliminary report after visiting Manicaland province, Chimanimani from the 19th to the 25th of May 2019 with an objective to appreciate the effects of Cyclone Idai from a gender perspective. Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe, the ZGC Chairperson briefed journalists about…
By Edward Makuzva Wetlands are one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, as they provide benefits to human beings and the environment hence the need to end peat fires, an official said. Addressing journalists at a media tour organised by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), on peat fires which have been recorded in…
By Byron Mutingwende The Awareness Workshop on Climate Change and Ozone for Editors held at Kadoma Rainbow Hotel last Saturday has been hailed as a platform that enlightened editors from main media platforms in Zimbabwe on climate change issues, causes and effects in Zimbabwe and around the world as well as how the country is…
By John Wilson of Food Matters Zimbabwe Fame Here’s a 50-minute podcast interview with David Montgomery, a guitar-playing (belongs to two bands) Professor of Geomorphology at the University of Washington who has written books on Regenerative Agriculture. I sent out quotes from one of his books last weekend. I found the whole interview interesting, but the…
By Byron Mutingwende As climate change becomes the biggest threat to humankind and the global economy, stakeholders have put the Zimbabwe Climate Change Framework Bill under scrutiny. The Parliament of Zimbabwe, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) in partnership with the Climate Change Management Department of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement held…
By Tatenda Mujeyi The Minister of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Senator Priscilla Mupfumira has announced a new ten-member board for the Environmental Management Agency (EMA). The announcement comes after the expiration of the previous board’s term and the current board will serve a 5-year term. The announcement followed President ED Mnangagwa’s approval and was…
The Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis (RVAA) Programme’s regional pre-assessment workshop opened with a call to National Vulnerability Assessment Committees (NVACs) of Member States to harmonise and improve the quality of assessments and analysis; and integrate emerging issues such as nutrition, gender, HIV, markets and urban vulnerability to meet the needs of decision makers. The…
The Italian Government has contributed €250,000 to respond to the needs of communities affected by Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe. The contribution, provided to the World Food Programme (WFP), will support immediate food needs in the worst-affected areas of the country. An estimated 250,000 people in seven districts of Zimbabwe were directly affected by Cyclone Idai,…
By Charles Dhewa The introduction of exotic crops, fruits and livestock into Africa was initially guided and informed by the way indigenous crops, livestock and fruits performed in different micro climates. Unfortunately, instead of cultivating co-existence between exotic and indigenous foods, the colonial knowledge system has sought to completely replace indigenous crops, fruits and livestock…
By Lovemore Chazingwa (News Correspondent) Communities vulnerable to natural disasters need be geared for preparedness and response in order to mitigate the effects of such calamities, an expert in disaster management has said. Responding to questions on the sidelines of a recent workshop on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) organised by international non-governmental…
The Government of Japan contributed US$350,000 to respond to emergency needs in Zimbabwe following Cyclone Idai. The contribution, provided to the World Food Programme, will support immediate food needs in the worst-affected areas of the country. Some 270,000 people in seven districts of Zimbabwe have been affected by Cyclone Idai which made landfall in Zimbabwe…
By Charles Dhewa The African spiny horned cucumber is abundant in Southern Africa this farming season. Like other natural crops, it does well in seasons characterised by global warming-induced drought such as the one ravaging Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe this year. Replaced by the English cucumber, the African cucumber has been completely…
27 April 2019, Masvingo – The United Nations Team in Zimbabwe concluded a two-day field visit to UN supported relief efforts and development programmes in two districts in Masvingo Province. The UN team led by the UN Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe Mr. Bishow Parajuli over the past two days field visit to Masvingo and Chiredzi…
Campaign targets nearly 500,000 people in Chimanimani and Chipinge An oral cholera vaccine (OCV) campaign targeting some 487,825 people began Tuesday in Zimbabwe in the two districts most affected by Cyclone Idai. During the campaign all residents of Chimanimani and Chipinge districts aged 12 months and older will receive the vaccine to protect them against cholera….
By Byron Mutingwende Mr Cloffas Nyagumbo, the Green Innovation Hub (GiHub) Project Manager and Deputy Country Director of SNV Zimbabwe had a one-on-one meeting with Spiked Online Media wherein he laid out the advantages of the initiative to the youths and the economy. He said the GiHub seeks to address challenges around youth unemployment, climate…
By Charles Dhewa Contrary to the hype in which ICTs are presented as a panacea, ICTs-related costs in many African countries eroding the meagre promised benefits. Countless studies and articles (including this one https://www.techzim.co.zw/2019/03/cost-of-mobile-data-in-zimbabwe-should-we-even-compare/) show that the cost of data is increasing in Africa when such costs are decreasing in other parts of the world….
